Electric Shock Showdown! (014)

[Serebii]

Electric Shock Showdown!

Arriving in Vermillion City, Ash is anxious to battle the gym leader. However the gym leader is unbeatable and has a Raichu. After losing the first time...Ash needs to rethink his strategy...can Pikachu really beat this Raichu?

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Discuss

 

[Burnt Flower]

I wanted Pikachu to evolve so badly and I was terribly dissapointed when that didn't happen. I think this is one of the few episodes in Pokemon where the moral isn't so blatantly stated.

 

[Goin' Graveler]

First episode I watched. At that time I was so blind I almost didn't even recognize TR. Just shows how dense I was then.

 

[That Scary Clefairy]

one of the most intense gym battle i ever saw(untill blaine came along). I love this episode as that raichu was a itimadating character that made pikachu try his hardest to fight against. LT. Surge is HUGE @_@! and had rip muscle also(after all he is the lightning American in BOTH JP & ENG verison). I like his attitude also and how he thought misty was the challenger.( wouldn't all the Kanto gym leaders know each other?)
Great episode that worthy of rewatching.

 

[meggirl63]

That was an intense gym battle, baby!!!!!!!! Of course, I didn't like Lt. Surge when he called Ash 'baby'. How stupid could Lt. Surge get?

 

[Ryuu]

Pikachu finally made up its mind not to evolve.

This gym battle was intense and excellent; and Lt.Surge awarded Ash with the "Thundah" badge, as he calls it. XD

And TR actually forgot about their dumb plans here!

 

[Sharpshooter]

Great episode that worthy of rewatching.

Agreed. You can't beat a good Kanto gym battle.

Wow Surge is huge, heh must be a slight exagguration here, it's humanly impossible to be that big!

Why did everybody want Pikachu to evolve so much, I think it was good that it stayed in it's unevolved state defeated Raichu.

Give Brock credit as well, Ash wouldn't have the battle without him.

 

[The Big Al]

Surge and Blaine have to be the best gym leaders in Kanto and easily in the top five of all the gym leaders (maybe sharing the spot light with Norman, Pryce, and Morty). Can you ask for a battle type v. type battle?

However, I still don't understand why in Japanese version he still has a Japanese sounding name (despite the fact he still spoke English).

Not mention we got to see some bonding between Ash and Pikachu. It's episodes like these that make me wish Kanto would come back.

As for Surge's size, he stands at a hair more than 2 meters. Trust me, people can get that tall and taller.

 

[Squeaky Yugi]

re..

What was happening in that scene where James holds Koffing over his face? Was something lost in translation?

 

[Murgatroyd]

What was happening in that scene where James holds Koffing over his face? Was something lost in translation?

Yes, a not-particularly-good pun involving aasu (earth, as in grounding out the electric attack) and dogaasu (Koffing).

 

[~*Mitsuki*~]

Wow Surge is huge, heh must be a slight exagguration here, it's humanly impossible to be that big!

Impossible? What world are you living on? oO;;

It's true some Japanese people have been known to get quite tall, but for the most part they don't. I remember a few American (I assume) men were walking around in a crowed street, and I'll tell you what, they looked like giants! In fact, the height difference between them and some of the people was probably bigger than the one Takeshi has with Machisu! However, the build these men had was also the same as Machisu's and therefore it's quite possible his size and such could be about the same.

So basically what am I saying? Machisu can be that tall. =P Sure you can say "that's still really tall!" but remember young kids usually aren't tall to begin with--so no, I don't believe it was an exagguration.

 

[Sharpshooter]

Impossible? What world are you living on? oO;;

It's true some Japanese people have been known to get quite tall, but for the most part they don't. I remember a few American (I assume) men were walking around in a crowed street, and I'll tell you what, they looked like giants! In fact, the height difference between them and some of the people was probably bigger than the one Takeshi has with Machisu! However, the build these men had was also the same as Machisu's and therefore it's quite possible his size and such could be about the same.

So basically what am I saying? Machisu can be that tall. =P Sure you can say "that's still really tall!" but remember young kids usually aren't tall to begin with--so no, I don't believe it was an exagguration.

Oh yes it was, Surge appeared to be at least twice the size of Ash, therefore common sense would tell you he's around 10ft tall! His forearms are about as thick as Ash's head, I mean come on there is some degree of exagguration here, but who cares, the whole things meant to be based on make believe anyway, I like exagguration

 

[The Big Al]

Actually, Ash comes to the bottom of Surge's chest.

I was thinking, Surge was a far better Mentor to Ash than Misty and Brock ever were. He forced Ash to make some hard decisions and to come rethink he strategies (though Brock did most of the thinking).

 

[~*Mitsuki*~]

I would make a come back to your answer Sharpshooter, but Al pretty much brought up what I wanted to. As for his arms? Trust me, some of those body builders DO have arms like that...

Anyways though, I do agree with you on the mentor thing Al. Machisu may have been a little strange acting compared to other characters, but he was still strong and smart (I suppose the smarts came from the whole army bit). He probably taught Satoshi more in two days than Kasumi and Takeshi could in a week. o_o;

 

[Sharpshooter]

I would make a come back to your answer Sharpshooter, but Al pretty much brought up what I wanted to. As for his arms? Trust me, some of those body builders DO have arms like that...

Anyways though, I do agree with you on the mentor thing Al. Machisu may have been a little strange acting compared to other characters, but he was still strong and smart (I suppose the smarts came from the whole army bit). He probably taught Satoshi more in two days than Kasumi and Takeshi could in a week. o_o;

I was gonna check the tape but it appears I have(or somebody has) tapped it over. Anyway, I'm quite sure however the animators didn't focus on the reailty aspect as much as you make it out. It's simply an animé, Pokémon isn't real, nor are the characters, there's no need to go haywire about it, in general it's unlikely, I watch WWE regularly, and trust me none of the wrestlers there would match Surge.

The whole thing is meant to be an exagguration to play on kids immagination, in the same way that Dragonite appeared to be about 10 times it's original height in the episode "Mystery at the Lighthouse" prior to this one.

 

[Sekushii]

Electric Shock Showdown was the first episode I saw. I knew about the games, but I didn't know there was an anime too. That's when I got addicted to Pokemon. ^_^

The episode is probably one of the best ever in Pokemon history. In my opinion anyway. ^^;

However, I still don't understand why in Japanese version he still has a Japanese sounding name (despite the fact he still spoke English).

Lt. Surge's Japanese name is Machisu. Actually, it's the Japanese pronunciation for the name Matisse. So, his actual name is Matisse, but written/pronounced as Machisu in Japanese. (The name Matisse is pronounced Mah-teess)

Impossible? What world are you living on? oO;;

I remember a few American (I assume) men were walking around in a crowed street, and I'll tell you what, they looked like giants! In fact, the height difference between them and some of the people was probably bigger than the one Takeshi has with Machisu! However, the build these men had was also the same as Machisu's and therefore it's quite possible his size and such could be about the same.

So basically what am I saying? Machisu can be that tall. =P Sure you can say "that's still really tall!" but remember young kids usually aren't tall to begin with--so no, I don't believe it was an exagguration.

Those two people that were in his gym were also very tall. Surge still towered over them. Yeah. Surge is huge. Probably the biggest person ever in the anime.

Here's 2 caps that show Surge's height. The people behind him are already tall too, but Surge is like !!! And it does look like Surge is two times taller than Ash.

So I think Surge's size is very exaggerated and impossible to have. And not only is he tall, but really muscular too. That makes him look even bigger.

 

[War Raichu]

This is probably my favorite episode to date, but I was ****ed when Pikachu refused to evolve. It was that decision that began my hatred for the little *******.

 

[Psychic Venusaur]

Aaaah! He is huge!
Lt. Surge and Blaine really are cool. Kanto rocks.

I thought Lt. Surge's name might be "Mathis", but I know that s_ katakana are usually used for the "th" sound, so that could be off based.

I'm glad Pikachu didn't evolve. I liked it's speech to Ash.

Brock's advice was good.

When Team Rocket met Ash & co. in the street, Jessie was all like "Pi! Ka! Chuu!", with her tongue sticking out and moving kind of like a snake's.

8.8/10, a really nice gym battle. I like Kanto quality.

 

[Murgatroyd]

Based on those pictures, Sekushii, I can give you an estimated height.
If we assume that Ash is 4' 6" (not an unreasonable height for a ten-year-old), then Surge is just short of eight feet tall, and the people behind him are just over six feet.

That would make Surge one of the tallest people in the world (taller than the current real-world record holder (7' 8.9"), but well short of the all time record (8' 11")). Of course, if we assume Ash is shorter, Surge also loses height proportionally.

 

[Sekushii]

I was just thinking of the world records. Hehe. ^_^; Thanks for your input.